Your Questions Answered: How Can I Help My Child With His First Book Report?

My student will soon write his first book report for this school year. How can I help him succeed with this task?

Writing Seton book reports is one of the most critical and challenging tasks your student will complete before entering high school.

A Seton book report is not a plot summary of the book but an analysis of the main character. Completing these book reports will help your student build the skills necessary for writing high school essays in the future.

The Key to Success

The Book Report Handbook is the key to success when writing a Seton book report. This handbook takes the student step-by-step through the book report writing process.

Note that this process starts before the student even begins to read the assigned book. Make sure to read the handbook introduction, How to Write a Book Report, before giving the assigned book to the student. For fourth graders, this introduction is introduced after the first-quarter book report tutorial in the handbook.

Speaking of brand-new fourth graders, did you know that the first-quarter book report is not submitted to Seton for grading?

Instead, the student learns how to write a book report throughout the quarter using the lesson plan and Book Report Handbook as a guide. Once the student completes the tutorial, he takes an online test on MySeton on how to write a book report instead of sending it in for grading. Think of this first Seton book report as his practice before the “real thing.”

Helpful Prompts

Please note that for the first and second quarter book reports, Seton provides the entire first paragraph and topic sentences for the remaining paragraphs.

These can be found at the back of the handbook. To make the writing process easier, be sure your student is using these. Our graders expect the student to copy these exactly as they are written in the handbook.

In addition to using the handbook, it is helpful if you read the book report book alongside your student. Reading the book yourself will allow you to discuss key aspects of the book with your student. You can also guide the student toward finding good, specific examples from the book for the report.

If you find it difficult to set aside the time to read the book, give your student the Chapter Questions to answer as he reads each chapter. The chapter questions are geared to help the student find good examples for the report.

The Chapter Questions can be found on the student’s MySeton Reading resources page.

Younger and Beginning Students

Please note that younger students and those writing a Seton book report for the first time may require extra parental help and supervision.

If you wonder, “How much help is too much help,” contact an elementary counselor to guide you. After you help with the first few book reports, our hope is that your student will be able to take up the challenge of writing them independently, maybe even, at some point, without the handbook.

Laura Fusto, Academic Counselor

My eighth grader is a good student, but struggles with his Reading course. Could Seton’s Special Needs department help us with this one course?

Yes, we can help you with that. We have found that sometimes changing a single subject, such as reading, to an adapted curriculum can be the key to keeping the student moving forward and succeeding.

If you are fully enrolled, we are happy to exchange one standard course for a special needs version of that course.

There is no change in your tuition for this benefit. Don’t hesitate to contact our Special Needs Department at ssdept@setonhome.org or call 540-622-5576 for details.

Here’s more about our Special Needs Department.

Stephen Costanzo, Director of Special Services

When is the best time to call a Seton counselor?

Now is the best time to call.

We want you to make use of Seton’s counseling services. We are here to help you. Don’t let small problems turn into big problems. Please don’t hesitate to call or email. The counselors’ email addresses and phone numbers can be found at Setonhome.org.

Remember that if a student is not able to solve a problem fairly quickly, waiting often frustrates the student.

Does my 7th grader need to do every lesson in every workbook?

No, and this applies to all grades. You can assign whichever lessons you think are best for your student to learn the material.

For instance, if a perfect score is made in the first spelling exercises, without looking up the spelling, then the other exercises in that chapter can be optional. To be sure that students can obtain a perfect score for the end-of-quarter test, give the most important exercise for each lesson, especially for the Math workbook and the English workbook.

Seton Staff